WIREYAPS

The controversy about the Bush administration's use of monitoring of phone conversations in the US seems to have created quite a storm. One wonders what the real issues are here. Last Thursday the NYT published a long story on the program which, by all press accounts, goes back to 2002. In that year the Administration captured a top Al Qaeda operatives computers and cell phones and ran traces on all of the numbers on both. They began to do two things with that information. First, they did some surveilance of phone calls and other communications that took place on foreign soil. Second, and this is where the controversy started, they also did some surveilance of people on American soil. It is unclear whether this involves a lot of US citizens or merely people who are on American soil.

As I understand it, the government has the power under something called the Foreign Intelligence Surveilence Court to ask for warrants to review cell phones and emails - and that, based on the public record, these proceedings are a) secret and b) almost overwhelmingly in favor of the government position. Thus, it is puzzling why the administration chose not to use this process. The FSIC uses a lower level of proof for a crimminal warrant than a traditional crimminal court. But for some reason the administration chose not to use that procedure.

In 2003 the ranking Senate democrat on the intelligence committee questioned whether this new procedure was a good idea. One of the interesting things is that Rockefeller has declined to comment on the story but the usual suspects like Senator Levin has chosen to yap about this.

I am worried about massive extensions of powers by the government and it seems odd to me that the adminstration chose to use this new authority without going through the FSIC process - which seems to be quite accommodating. However, at the same time many of the loudest critics seem to have little regard for the very real peril that Americans face as a result of a worldwide terrorist network. On balance, while I am skeptical of the procedure, I think a lot of the yapping about it seems based more on the commenter's hatred of the president than on some sound policy basis.

The president did a good job last night and today in making his case. We do live in dangerous times. While we should be cautious about massive extensions of governmental power, we need to be able to keep up with the technologies of the terrorists. They have shown a real willingness to use all sorts of new technologies to chase down their looney goals. All of the weltschmerzing about the Patriot Act have been mostly silly. The perils of the Act have been more perceived than real. Librarians are not being jailed or victimized. For the most part, except for the constant presence of the TSA in airports, most people don't realize any negative effects of the Patriot Act. We did find out that FEMA is no better prepared than before as a result of Katrina. But that is another longer and more complex story. (The MSM did an abysmal job of reporting the basic facts about the disaster including the fact of who was really hurt in the tragedy.) But all of the baloney about how terrible the Patriot Act could have been have been classic chicken little exaggerations.

The Congress should extend the Patriot Act before they go home for Christmas. They should also lower the level of rhetoric a bit. The terrorists are bad guys. We should take them seriously. They are not a single regime - but neither have they been provoked by our intervention in Iraq. If the insurgents in Iraq are not successful and if the Iraquis are successful in creating a democratic state in the Middle East, it will send a powerful message to the other beacons of terrorism. We need to lower the rhetoric a lot on this but I think the President is mostly right here. I am not worried about my phone calls and emails and if I did send something to Abdul or call him - it might not be a bad idea to monitor it.

The last issue to discuss is whether this is a Nixon redux issue. People like Senator Levin seem to think it is. Bush (Nixon) is being portrayed as doing stuff in the clandestine arena without regard for the law. Some in the press also seem to see this scenario. But his press conference today belies that setting. I thought the President's defense of his tactics was quite strong and his ultimate argument that announcing the program widely would allow the terrorists the ability to shift tactics is true. But some on the left want to think about reliving Nixon forever.